We've all grown up hearing about the "La Brea Tarpits" with those harrowing (to kids) illustrations of mastadons and saber-toothed tigers struggling against the inexorable envelopment of the tar. And you imagine what they look like now. And you think about these giant pits of tar in the desert with prehistoric rocks and dinosaurbones all around. What a Freakin' letdown! it's just this smallish dark smelly pond with a fake plastic elephant in it. It's about 5 feet from the road with a big fence around it. The whole experience is over in about 30 seconds. But then, 50 feet to your left is the LACMA, which is very cool, though not as cool as the Getty.